Everyone loved Peggy, the little Guernsey cow. She had such lovely soft brown eyes and gentle manners. Farmer Pratt brought her from market one Thursday and put her into a nice green field next to the farm. She lived happily there and the farmer's children went each day to play with her. Sometimes they gave her a nice juicy apple to munch. Peggy was very happy and would not have changed places with anyone in the world.

One day she saw men in the field next to hers. They had stakes and some barbed wire and were mending all the fences and hedges round the field. Peggy looked on with her large soft eyes and wondered what was going to happen. When she came out of her stall the next morning she had a big surprise for there, in the field next to hers, was a large stamping bull.

"Moo-oo," said Peggy "how do you do?" She was a very polite little cow.

"Hmph," grunted the Bull, "I don't do at all well. The field's too small and there's nothing to see. I don't think I shall like it here."

"Oh" said Peggy "but it's very nice indeed. There's lots of lovely grass to chew, and the children come to stroke me; sometimes they bring me a rosy apple. Soon I shall give them milk. I like it here - and I'm sure you will too," she added kindly.

Ben Bull only grunted once again and went on stamping his feet and tossing his head with short, angry jerks.

Every day the children came to play with Peggy and when they came home from school the brought her apples and stroked her silky coat. But they didn't go near Ben Bull.

"He's dangerous," said Tommy.

"Yes, he has a very bad temper," said Mary.

They picked daises and made a lovely chain and hung it round Peggy's ears. She felt just like a queen. But she was a little sad for Ben the Bull. Nobody went to play with him and nobody hung a nice daisy chain on his fierce horns. Only Peggy grew quite fond of him.

"Moo-oo he's not really so cross as he tries to make out," she tried to tell the children. But they didn't understand her language.

When the children were at school and Peggy was bored she went to the fence and talked to Ben. He had been about the world and had lots of adventures too. The one she most enjoyed hearing about was the time he saw a big red bus. Peggy didn't know what a bus looked like. She didn't even know what red was. She was a very young little cow.

"What does red look like?" said Peggy.

"Grrr!" said Ben "red makes me mad - it's a horrid, bright colour and when I see it I chase it."

Peggy didn't think red would make her mad. She thought it would be gay and exciting. She would very much like to see a red bus.

Soon changes took place on the farm. Ben Bull was given a nice wife and didn't come to the fence to talk to Peggy. She was glad he was happy but wished she could have someone in with her. In fact she wished so hard that the farmer must have heard because one day he came along and said, "Come on, Peggy. I think you are big enough now to go into the big field with all the other cows."

So he led here along the road and then turned her into a very large field with many more cows. These cows came and stared at Peggy and she looked shyly at them, but she soon settled down with them.

Very soon, however, she found that every day seemed just like every other day. The sun was a lovely golden ball in the sky and the buttercups were just as golden in the field. There was plenty of green and some brown, but Peggy did wish she could see an exciting colour like red. She did so much want to have an adventure.

As she ambled in the field she could hear the cars going by on the other side of the hedge and she heard children shouting, but she could not see them. Even the farm children had stopped visiting her now that she was a big cow in a field with all the others.

Every day she looked at the gate and hoped that some careless person would leave it open so that she could get out onto the road. But no one ever did.

Then one day when she was really hot and bored with just chewing grass and looking at buttercups, she saw an exciting thing. In the corner of the field, where the hedge ran along the road, she saw a little gap.

"A hole in the hedge" she said to herself. "If only I could make it a little bit bigger I could get through and have an adventure in the big world".

So she ambled over, taking care not to let the other cows see because they were rather bossy - as they were older than she was - and they would have said, "Don't go over there, Peggy. Keep along by us".

So she took her time and nibbling a little bit of grass here, and little bit there, and she came at last to the gap. It wasn't very big, but she wasn't a very big cow. She bit at the hedge with her strong teeth and tugged away until she had a hole large enough to get her head through. It wasn't very long after that before the rest of her followed. She was out on the nice white road.

It was Sunday and very quiet because the people were in their houses having a big Sunday dinner. The sun was shining down and when Peggy put her head over the gardens she thought how pretty all the flowers looked. There were pink roses and blue delphiniums.

She was enjoying her adventure. It was lovely to be free and see all these pretty gardens. She did wish that she could get in and see the back of the houses. Soon she came to the end house in the row and here lived a small boy called David. He had had a busy morning sweeping up the hedge cuttings so that when his Mummy called him in to dinner he had left the gate open. This was just what Peggy wanted. When she saw an open space where the gate should be she went in.

She nibbled at the nice lawn and then at the little leaves sprouting from the trunk of the tree. Then she walked round to the side of the house and David's cat came and stared in astonishment.

"what", she miaowed "is this strange animal doing in our garden" and she went off to fetch Ginger from next door. Then they both went off again to get Smokey from up the road and soon there were three puzzled cats and one happy cow in David's garden.

But he didn't know because he was having his hair brushed and his tie straightened. He was going to catch the bus to Sunday School. While he was being tidied - wishing that he could remain in his comfortable old shorts with the grease spots on them - Peggy was having a lovely time in the garden mooing at the three staring cats.

Then suddenly she heard a loud noise and looked up to see a great big red bus coming down the road. It was just as Ben Bull had described it. She was so excited that she rushed up to the back door and put her feet on the door step just as David came out to catch the bus.

"Moo-oo" she said, "a bus, a bright red bus".

But David ran in quickly.

"Mummy, mummy," he called "there's a cow in our garden."

When Mummy came out there was Peggy, staring at the bus with her large astonished eyes, and looking out of the bus were all the other Sunday School children. They were laughing and pointing and chanting.

"There's a cow in David's garden. There's a cow in David's garden."

But David's Mummy didn't want a cow trampling on her flower beds so she clapped her hands and said, "Shoo! Shoo!" and she took Peggy out of the garden, across the road and through the gate into her own field. After that she went to tell the farmer about the gap in the hedge and he came with wire to mend it.

By now people had finished their Sunday dinner and cars and bicycles were moving up the road. But Peggy was quite happy to be back in her field again. She was having a lovely time telling all the other cows about her adventure and the big red bus.